"J. Steven Griles joined the Bush administration as deputy interior secretary convinced that the nation's land use policies had swung too far in favor of conservationists at the expense of commercial interests, especially the oil and mining industries. In this he was no different from any of the other lobbyists and think-tank conservatives President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney picked to fill the administration's key environmental posts.

Mr. Griles, who in private life represented oil and mining companies, pushed the pendulum the other way - pushed it so far, in fact, that any semblance of balance between conservation and commerce disappeared. The environmental community is not unhappy to see him leave as part of the second-term administration shuffle. Neither are we."